


We Shall Fly on Sighs of Fates

by nonky



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Episode: s04e19-20 Daybreak, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 08:00:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11619342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Kara and Zak were the prologue of a tragedy, and Kara and Lee the herald of salvation. The fates had discussed for months what should be done. Every string cut or tangled had a price later.





	We Shall Fly on Sighs of Fates

The boy could be saved.

The fates intervened, breaking hearts to save a life. They looked from the magical pool into Kara Thrace's apartment, a god's view of a dollhouse world. Lee and Kara were destined to intertwine, and needed no help. They were sprawled on the table, their companion forgotten on the couch. 

The youngest of the three, sleeping in the face of his own betrayal, was going to die unless he witnessed it directly. Kara and Zak were the prologue of a tragedy, and Kara and Lee the herald of salvation. The fates had discussed for months what should be done. Every string cut or tangled had a price later. They had to trace to the end of the young man's life before being certain the alteration saved his life and did not ripple destructively. With the exception of this one chapter of his life, his string was long and wound happily with many other lives.

Zak Adama had grown up estranged from his father but loved as much by his older brother. He had a mother hiding in drinking and neglect. He had grown up innocent of most of the worst by Lee's efforts. He had a light step and a lighter smile. He had even charmed the fates into subverting their duties. 

A minute, impossible breeze moved by his face, and he flinched as it woke him. The fates drew back, anticipating.

Instead of a drunk fumbling fall, Zak came to his feet with his eyes still closed. He stumbled forward and the near fall let him see his brother on top of his fiancee. They were both shocked and flushed, Kara's hands still on Lee. 

There was no apology worthy once the younger brother saw it wasn't a strange side effect of his drinking. He glared at them, though the immediacy of the moment was shot when he had to further stumble to the bathroom to be sick. 

Kara was too slow in pushing him away, and Lee was oddly reluctant to feel sorry. He didn't want to hurt Zak. He didn't want to upset Kara. He also didn't want to hide an erection anytime he saw his sister-in-law at family dinners. Lee wasn't a religious man, and he knew his skills and talents came from his willingness to learn. He hadn't been given his abilities as a pilot. He hadn't been gifted with people skills. Life took practice. 

If anything in the universe had been a gift, it was the instant and infinite wave of belonging he felt when Kara leaned in confidentially and gave him a kiss instead of a secret. It would have happened, and now it had, and Zak would have more time to get over it. Better now than a few years in with one of them on a long deployment. 

Kara let him help her down, but brushed him off until he took the hint. They were standing far apart, staring at the walls when Zak returned. He didn't acknowledge Lee.

"I was going to write my own vows," he told Kara. "I was going to say loving you was the most rewarding part of my life, and I expected that to be the case forever. I was going to make everyone see we fit. I get it now. Relationships, settling down made sense when the right person - It wasn't though, because it didn't happen. We didn't happen. If anyone asks about it, I'll say I don't remember."

She took a step and halted, hanging on guilt. "Don't say that. It wasn't - no one planned this. I didn't imagine Lee would be-"

"I didn't imagine he would be, but he is, and so are you."

Zak slammed into the bedroom and packed, door locked on their words to calm him. He left Kara's apartment and never returned. His absence at school left no choice but to flunk him, and Lee was worried he was getting into trouble. 

But there was Kara, and the military to keep him busy. Daily life continued, with ambivalent steps to being a couple. Getting engaged was out of the question, but they were solidly joined by every inclination. Kara was thinking about taking a post on a battlestar. Lee was already off world half the year. 

Zak showed up for a distant cousin's birthday. He was scruffy and his alcohol tolerance must have taken a lot of drinking to achieve. He said hello to Lee and Kara, and walked away to mingle with anyone else. At the end of the night, he came back to hand a note to Lee. 

"I changed my number. Here's the new one, if you're looking for me."

Lee had wanted to say he'd looked for a long time, but Zak was still using his bank account and occasionally spoke with their parents. It was only Lee who hadn't been used to the long spans of uncertainty where his brother was keeping himself. 

"Thank you. It was good to see you, Zak," he said. 

It was too early to try too hard. This was a cracked window letting the issues air out. Given some time, Lee would apologize again. He would explain himself. He would try to put into words how arriving for the first time at Kara's apartment had felt like coming home to a lover instead of meeting her as his future relation. 

The brothers spoke every few months, random pleasantries and idle bitching about work and family. They built up to actual conversation, and Lee was allowed to briefly apologize for touching Kara that first night. Zak had shrugged, clearly still wounded. Then he'd sighed and said, "I don't know, Lee. I guess if it happened like that with you, we weren't ready to be married. You didn't do me a favour or anything, but I see how you and Kara are more solid than that."

Finding space in his life for Zak and Kara was harder. It was difficult to include her when the dynamic of a love triangle was so glaring. Zak didn't love her anymore and was able to be polite. It was chilly. Kara was uncomfortable, Lee felt driven to keep conversations going with monologues if necessary, and Zak had only known her for the time they had been a couple. Their reminiscences all existed on the backdrop of a relationship, romantic moments interspersed like landmines.

"Do you remember the day you called class early and made me reprogram the flight simulators manually?"

"Because you frakked them up with that power surge when you wanted to charge your phone. You nearly shut down all flight training," Kara said brashly. "-because you couldn't find an outlet."

Lee had to fight to hold his beer easily and keep smiling. He wanted them to get along. It was just hard to see it happening and remember the woman who wouldn't yet marry him had been set to marry his brother in a fraction of the time.

"I was expecting a call." Zak shrugged.

His failed engagement and flunking out of flight school had been hard on him, and his carefree personality darkened slightly. Zak had become radically independent, making his own money and eschewing help. He had wandered for a long time, intent on being far away from familiar places where people wanted to check up on him.

It was very lucky he was able to understand and forgive. Lee told himself he should be happy there were good moments to create a bridge between that old relationship between Zak and Kara and their new proximity around him.

"You were trying to buy a motorcycle," she said blandly, taking a pull of her beer and leaning absently into Lee's side.

"It was a really good price." Zak raised his eyebrows comically, and sighed. "But it did have a dent in the frame that somebody tried to fix. I wouldn't have bought it."

"I'm not giving you praise for not buying a broken bike," Lee said. "You should have known better from the price."

Zak swigged the last of his beer and stood up, weaving slightly. "Sometimes the universe tries to give you nice things without asking much in return, Lee. I would think you'd get the idea of being luckier than you deserve."

There was a moment of doubt, of picking apart every syllable to check for bitterness in tone. Lee watched his brother carefully, but everything was casual in his posture. It was advice, a simple admonishment to enjoy his life. His newly mature little brother was still the free spirit of the family.

Zak winked at Kara, who was snuggled even closer to her boyfriend. "Yeah, Lee, appreciate me for the wonder I am," she agreed.

He was outnumbered, and glad to see they were really getting along instead of merely acting it out for the sake of Lee's stress levels. He raised his free hand in surrender.

"I'm a lucky man. I have a great brother and a great girlfriend," he said amiably. "Now go get us three more great beers."


End file.
